Out of the Vault

January 13–April 4, 2019

Delve into BAMPFA’s collection of avant-garde film with screenings of work by Frank Stauffacher, Warren Sonbert, and Nathaniel Dorsky, plus programs guest curated by The Black Aesthetic.

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  • Nathaniel Dorsky: The Dreamer

  • Black Interiors: Sermons and Sacred Pictures

  • Black Interiors: Felicia

  • Upcoming
    Films
  • Upcoming
    Events
  • Selected
    Objects
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Past Films

  • Black Interiors: Sweat

    • Thursday, April 4 7 PM

    Black work is made visible in this diverse program, including Right On/Be Free, featuring the Alvin Ailey dance company’s Judith Jamison (filmed outside BAMPFA’s former building!); the documentary Finally Got the News, made with the League of Revolutionary Black Workers; and more.

    The Black Aesthetic in Conversation

  • Black Interiors: Intimacy

    • Thursday, March 14 7 PM

    BAMPFA Student Committee Pick

     

    Reflecting on intimacy, this program features short works by celebrated filmmakers Julie Dash (Relatives), Arthur Jafa (Slowly, This), and Claudia Weill (This Is the Home of Mrs. Levant Graham); a dance performance by Bill T. Jones; and more.

    The Black Aesthetic in Conversation

  • Black Interiors: Spirit

    • Thursday, February 21 7 PM

    Local collective The Black Aesthetic present rarely seen educational, ethnographic, and experimental works exploring the theme of black interiors: Lynne Sachs’s Sermons and Sacred Pictures and two films on the famous folk singer Bessie Jones.

    The Black Aesthetic and Marvin K. White in Conversation

  • Arboretum Cycle

    • Friday, February 15 7 PM
    Nathaniel Dorsky
    United States, 2017

    Dorsky’s complete Arboretum Cycle, films (in the artist's words) “on a single subject, and that subject would be the light." “The experience of watching the Arboretum Cycle in its entirety is in some very large sense stunning” (Max Goldberg).

  • Four Films by Nathaniel Dorsky

    • Saturday, February 9 8 PM

    Nathaniel Dorsky returns to BAMPFA with this program of four films made since 2012, reflecting on the passing of friends, the passing of years, and the changing of seasons. On the program: August and After, The Dreamer, Autumn, and Colophon.

    Nathaniel Dorsky in Person

  • The Films of Frank Stauffacher

    • Sunday, January 27 2 PM

    A local art cinema pioneer in the 1940s, Stauffacher made films celebrating the Bay Area’s history, landscape, and urban sites. We present his three short works, plus James Broughton’s Mother’s Day, with cinematography by Stauffacher.

    Barbara Stauffacher Solomon in Person

  • Hall of Mirrors: Four Films by Warren Sonbert

    • Sunday, January 13 4 PM

    A tribute to one of the seminal figures in American experimental film, featuring the shorts Hall of Mirrors, Divided Loyalties, The Cup and the Lip, and Short Fuse, as well as personal remembrances and audio clips.

    Alan Bernheimer and Steve Anker in Conversation